{% include "includes/auth/janrain/signIn_traditional.html" with message='It looks like you are already verified. If you still have trouble signing in, you probably need a new confirmation link email.' %}

Car show benefiting SafePlace draws more than 100 Mustangs

Car show benefiting SafePlace draws more than 100 Mustangs

“Some trails are happy ones; others are blue. It’s the way you ride the trail that counts. Here’s a happy one for you.”

Roy Rogers’ 1952 hit song “Happy Trails” helped set a perfect car show scene last weekend during the 33rd annual Mustang Owners Club of Austin Round Up. More than 125 Mustangs and other makes and models spanning five decades were on display under a mostly sunny sky with near-100 degree temperatures.

“This is a good show. They do a very good job,” said Jim Srp of Boerne, owner of the 1969 Shelby GT-350 4-speed convertible that took Best in Show at the event. “This is a show where people keep coming back.”

The event at Great Hills Baptist Church on Jollyville Road raised money for SafePlace, a local organization that serves individuals and families affected by sexual and domestic violence.

Srp said he drives the “grabber orange” Shelby convertible — autographed by designer and racing driver Carroll Shelby — about once a month “around the block.” He bought the 44-year-old car in Colorado six years ago and has no plans to part with it.

With the convertible top down, a handful of awards and trophies could be seen sitting on the back seat, gleaming in the sunlight.

“About four years ago, we had the car in Tulsa for judging, and a young man came up to me and said his dad had bought a car just like it for him in high school,” he said. “I asked if it was the same color, and he said yes. Only two convertible 4-speeds were made in this color in 1969.”

The two men took a look through Srp’s photo album of restoration pictures of the car, which had at one time been painted black. It didn’t take long to confirm that the young man was one of the previous owners.

“It was really interesting to meet him,” Srp said. “He said he kept getting speeding tickets so he painted it black. That didn’t help, so he sold it to someone in Oregon.”

Several varieties of orange were on display, spanning different model years.

“This is emberglo,” said MOCA member Deby Bell of Austin, owner of a 1966 convertible with a V-8 engine and automatic transmission. “This color is what makes this so unique. They only did this color for one year.”

Emberglo very closely resembles the burnt orange of the University of Texas, Bell’s alma mater. Only two 1966 emberglo models were at Saturday’s car show.

“I get a lot of thumbs up and the ‘Hook ‘em Horns’ sign when I drive it,” Bell said. “People think we went out and painted it the UT color, but this was a Ford color.”

Bell, a 1973 journalism graduate, bought her Mustang three years ago on eBay from a seller in Long Island, NY.

“I had a 1965 fastback when I was in high school. It was white with red interior,” she said. “A friend sold his to my dad, who surprised me and bought it for me. I had it through high school and into college.”

MOCA member and past president Charles Schlund, a retired member of the Air Force, has attended 32 of the 33 Round Ups.

“The bulk of our participants now have the late models, but I like the old ones,” said Schlund, who took home a Best in Class award for his 1965 red fastback. “I’m age dating myself, but my first new car was a 1965 Mustang. They’re the baseline for me, the older ones, and I still enjoy them. They have a lot of character.”

Though the Austinite has an affinity for the older models, Schlund also owns a new Corvette.

“It’s great to have, too,” he said. “It’s got air conditioning and gets good gas mileage, but it’s not a Mustang.”